Breaking Into Startups for the Non-Coder (Presented by Lynxsy)

Startups have it all. They’re new exciting business that are growing themselves from the ground up. At a startup, you’ll work with innovators and free thinkers on cool, useful ideas, work hard but also play hard, and do whatever it takes (even if that means folding envelopes for 5 hours so that you can impress your customers). No matter which way you look at it startups are unparalleled environments for accelerated learning and growth, yet for the startup job seeker, breaking in can be one giant question mark.

In this webinar, Connie Wong, Co-Founder & COO of Lynxsy, will discuss the roles, expectations, and tips for how to break into the startup world. Whether you’re a current student, recent grad, or someone looking for an alternative to corporate America, you’ll learn what to expect and how to stand out in pursuing a job at a startup.

By the end of this webinar, you’ll understand:
- The roles and potential career paths that exist at a startup for non-technical backgrounds
- What to expect working in a startup environment, from hours to compensation to growth opportunities.
- The qualities that startups look for when building their teams.
- How to track down those startup jobs and get noticed by the team, even if you don’t have direct connections.
- How to prepare for and stand out in a startup interview.

For more info and to find a job or internship at a startup, sign up at www.lynxsy.com!

How many of you have worked in a startup before? How many of you are looking to work at a startup this summer for an internship or full-time job? How many of you are looking for a non-technical position at a startup? How many of you are looking to found your own startup either now or in the future?

2 min: Today’s Topics + Brief Background

Audience Check: Currently working at startups Transitioning careers into startups Just graduated and looking at startups as a first job Current students Technical positions vs. Non-Technical

5 min: Roles at Startups for Non-Engineers Devs aren’t the only positions – lots of non-tech Example stories of candidates we’ve matched (student / career transitioner) 5 min: What to Expect at a Startup Expect to Wear Multiple Hats Change Is the Only Constant 100% Mindshare Don’t Do It For the Money Career Trajectory Is Your Own Who Startups Look For Hustlers 5 min: How to Find a Startup Job Check out our blogpost 5 min: Startup Interviewing Tips

20 min Q&A Trevor

Penn/Wharton Consulting MeetMoi Lynxsy

We like to break down these non-technical roles into four main categories: Relationship-ers Organizers Analysts Creatives

Let’s start with what roles exist at a startup Everyone knows about the elusive developer – the purple unicorns that everyone is looking for It’s a common misconception that we run into that you have to know how to code to work at a startup – that isn’t the case. In fact, according to a recent study on the NY Tech Ecosystem, 60% of jobs in tech here in NY are non-technical. These range from sales and customer service to marketing / business dev / social media or community mgmt …

We like to break down these non-technical roles into four main categories: Relationship-ers Organizers Analysts Creatives

Impact: Your main responsibility is to do whatever it takes to drive new business. This means tirelessly generating new leads, fearlessly forming new connections, and constantly pitching the business like a broken record to drive revenue. Remember, without you, no one in the company gets paid.

Learn: If anything, this role is a bootcamp in professional confidence and development, and is one of the best entry positions to learn the true meaning of business. Through this role, you’ll become fluent and confident in pitching anything, and you’ll learn how to interact with and build trusting relationships with a wide array of personalities. If you’re looking to be a founder one day, these are the exact qualities that any budding entrepreneur needs to have to pitch their idea and get investors on board.

Paths: As far as growth goes, sky’s the limit. Many who start in this role go on to take on bigger accounts as a Sales Exec, grow to manage a sales team, move into Account Management, or go on to be a CEO.

Let’s start with the Business Growers You are someone who loves to persuade others, you love public speaking, and you’re known as a “shark” amongst your friends who will go after anything you want. If you’re someone who matches this personality, you could be a fit for a New Biz Whiz role, which can be labeled as Sales Associate, Market Dev Rep, Business Dev Rep – really they are all the same thing.

Lateral Movement: Consulting, Finance

Impact: As you can probably guess from the title, the happiness maker’s main responsibility is to keep customers happy, which is ultimately what makes or breaks a business longterm. If customers have a poor experience with the product or service, that’s an impact to the bottom line when they leave. If running a business were a war, these folks would be on the front-lines. They are the first line of defense to answering a customer’s questions and concerns, calming customers down when they’re angry, and problem solving on the fly to magically make issues disappear. Happiness makers are also uniquely positioned as the voice of the customer in the company and are charged with identifying trends in user behavior which can be relayed back to the product team. For this reason it’s important to note that every startup employee has taken part in this role at some point, especially the founders. As a founder, I read every single support email that comes in to understand user feedback.

Learn: In this role, you’ll learn to communicate and manage expectations with anyone, in any kind of situation, which is a highly skilled art form. If you can master this, it’ll serve you well as you deal with any kind of relationship whether that be an enterprise customer, or key investor in the future. Problem solving is key to this role as you’ll be thrown a ton of different challenges every hour of the day – you’ll learn how to juggle and tackle these issues efficiently and work with other departments on creating a sustainable solution. This is also one of the best entry points to learn the brand’s product in and out, including the good and bad. And for this reason, many companies use this team as a feeder into many other roles in the company.

Paths: After a year or two, you’ll have the best grasp on how customers experience and perceive the brand and product, which is a gateway to many other departments in the company. Candidates who start in this role often move on to Social Media/ Community, Operations, Product positions.

The second role is the Happiness Maker You fit this profile if you’re someone who naturally enjoys helping others and often go out of your way to do so You love interacting with and speaking with people And you embrace tough situations as a challenging problem to solve Specific roles can include Customer Success or Customer Experience Rep, or Account Manager.

Lateral Movement: Education, Consulting

Impact: Operators are the ones that keep the company running and help the New Biz Whiz and Happiness Makers deliver on what they’re promising. They make the magic happen for the customer. This is the ultimate multiple-hat wearing role - This could range from managing vendors to manufacture and deliver product to the customer, keeping the office running smoothly so the team is productive, or making sure finances are in order to help the business operate as a business.

Learn: In this role, you’ll get exposed to a ton of operational challenges at a company, from managing outside vendors, to scaling operations, to business basics of operating as a business – all great things to know for a future COO or founder. In this role, you also get a unique vantage point interacting with all departments of the company and getting a birds eye view of how all teams work together. This is a great starting position for someone who may not know exactly what they want to do, but wants general exposure to everything.

Paths: Common paths can lead to Product Management, COO or Founder.

Inefficiencies are your pet peeve (and you can’t help but fix them)

Transition: Anything as long as you’ve proven that you’ve executed on a project – Event Coordinator

Impact: Marketers are responsible for acquiring users however needed This spans a multitude of channels, including digital campaigns, optimizing google search, growing awareness through social media, and email marketing. It has less to do with creative branding, which is a common misconception, and more to do with driving numbers. Whether you’re in charge of a brand’s Twitter handle or Google Adwords, you are constantly and obsessively tracking the analytics around campaigns against hourly, daily, and monthly targets.

Learn: In this role, you’ll learn the science behind growing a user base and the levers of growth across a variety of digital channels. You’ll get really good at marketing analytics – conversion rates through various steps in a signup funnel, digital marketing metrics like Cost per impresssion and Cost per acquisition, and tools like Google Analytics Ultimately, if you want to launch any kind of product in the future this is a training ground in how to build awareness and acquisition tactics to get users to your platform.

Transition: - High data roles – consulting, finance, heavy use of excel, but also really proven awareness of social media and digital marketing channels

Roles that don’t exist are dedicated “Strategy” positions.

At an early stage startup, it’s typically structured around the Founders who take on all strategic direction at the company. Everyone else on the team they are hiring they are bringing on as soldiers to execute on that strategy, so there are no dedicated “strategy” roles per se. If you think about it, a resource strapped startup doesn’t have room for think tankers – what they need are people to execute in driving new business, users, customer retention.

Strategy instead is really embedded in each of these functions and woven into how you approach a customer problem as a customer success manager, how you go after a new customer as a sales associate, or how you leverage content marketing to drive user growth as a marketer.

Only larger established companies, like Google or Facebook, have the budget and depth of team to hire strategy analysts.

Don’t ask to do “Strategy” When candidates are asked what they see themselves doing at a startup and express interest in doing “strategy”, the alarm bells go off in an interviewers mind. Sure, roles like these might exist at a Google or FB, but for much smaller companies under 50-100, that role doesn’t exist – it tends to fall amongst the founders or CEO. It’s about building teams to execute and bringing in people who are going to add real results, not just recommendations. And when candidates ask it scares the interviewer that this person isn’t willing to get their hands dirty in the real work.

We like to break down these non-technical roles into four main categories: Relationship-ers Organizers Analysts Creatives

Now that we’ve covered some of the roles at startups, it’s important to know what you should expect working at a startup to determine if it’s right for now.

Wearing multiple hats - When your team is small, you’ll likely be taking on responsibilities not directly in your line of duty One moment you might be tasked with competitor research, the next you could be negotiating vendor agreements, and the next you are ordering the weekly supply of snacks, all of which I did at MeetMoi on top of working with the engineering team on the product. Don’t expect that what you signed up for is all that you’ll be expected to take on – and that’s the fun of it

Change is the only constant at a startup, so be prepared to be flexible The company could decide to pivot in a new direction or a new fundraise round could turn your 5 person startup into 50 in weeks. At Tough Mudder, where our co-founder & CEO, Susan worked previously, the company exploded from 10 to 200 in 2 years – which put the team through a whirlwind of change in team dynamics, processes, and growth. You’ll constantly have to change gears, so be prepared to be flexible and adapt

When talking about hours – it’s less about the actual hours spent in the office, but the mindshare a startup takes. At MeetMoi, I was working 9:30-7, but often found myself working on projects late at night and weekends, or unable to fall asleep because my mind wouldn’t shut off about work. Not because anyone told me to, but because I knew that my contribution would move the ball forward in a meaningful way. Don’t expect a clear line between work and life at a startup – it very much becomes everything you do.

If you’re looking at startups hoping to find the next Facebook, you’re probably in it for the wrong reasons. While it could very well be that the startup you join is a rocket ship, there’s a 99% chance it’ll fail, so you have to be ok with that outcome. Ask yourself – in the worse case scenario and the company doesn’t succeed, will you be happy having been part of something trying to create something new and where your contributions made an impact. Financial payoff is of course great, but consider it as gravy on top should you be so lucky. In terms of compensation, average entry-level salaries we’ve seen in the market range from $35K-$45K with a tiny percentage of equity (0.1-0.25%). So if you are transitioning from another career in finance, consulting, or another corporate job, while comp may be slightly higher if you come from some experience, make sure you are ok with a likely sizeable paycut before you start your search.

That said, startups can give you unlimited career potential. At a startup, things can change dramatically, fast, that can have the potential accelerate your career path and responsibilities – it’s all about your willingness to take on added responsibilities and flexibility to grow with the team, wherever needed. Back to our example with Kinnek, their Series A fundraise of $10M is dramatically shifting the responsibilities of the current employees and providing Jenn an opportunity to manage the entire customer service team within 6 months of joining.

We like to break down these non-technical roles into four main categories: Relationship-ers Organizers Analysts Creatives

Given these expectations at a startup, it’s important to understand the qualities that startups look for so you can brand and position yourself accordingly.

Self-Starters – people who don’t require a lot of guidance to get going and move the ball forward Comfortable with the Unknown – startups are forging a new path which can create a lot of ambiguity – you might get a project to “open up a new market” or “figure out our sales process”, which you, nor your manager, has any experience with Resourcefulness – That’s where resourcefulness comes into play with being able to leverage your connections to get sales expertise, research for online tutorials, and get to what you need. Whatever it Takes Mindset – Comes down to having a whatever it takes mindset. Before you get the job this may mean proactively offering to do some free projects for the company to get them comfortable with the value you can provide. Or while on the job, staying those extra hours or picking up additional responsibilities to get the job done. >>Hustlers – Essentially, hustlers

Independent: Startups look for problem solvers. People who approach challenges with “how can we make this happen” versus “there’s no way we can do this.”

Tolerance: Startups by nature are ambiguous organizations that are heavily resource constrained. There aren’t enough resources for any handholding so each and every person needs to be able to take a project and run with it. That means you might be given a project that you have never done before and maybe the company has never done before, but you have to add structure and figure it out. These could be “figure out our international expansion” – actually one of Susan’s first projects. Or, figure out how we can improve community moderation.

Going along these lines, being resourceful is a key trait of any successful startup team member. That may mean Googling something new to you, pulling your friends for connections or feedback, or coming up with creative solutions.

Resilience and passion. There are always ups and downs to startups – they look for people who can push through setbacks and bounce back stronger because of their passion for the team, mission, and product. In sales, for instance, you might get 100 closed doors before you land your first client. It’s the ability to be persistent that makes you stand out.

Confidence but no ego. This means being a true team player. In a startup, there are a lot of things that need to get done that aren’t glamorous or in your direct line of responsibilities. For example, as a Product Manager, it wasn’t in my job description, but I helped manage the Fresh Direct order on top of my other product responsibilities to keep up the team culture.

Basically it comes down to being a hustler – being able to do whatever it takes to make things happen.

Given these expectations at a startup, it’s important to understand the qualities that startups look for so you can brand and position yourself accordingly.

Self-Starters – people who don’t require a lot of guidance to get going and move the ball forward Comfortable with the Unknown – startups are forging a new path which can create a lot of ambiguity – you might get a project to “open up a new market” or “figure out our sales process”, which you, nor your manager, has any experience with Resourcefulness – That’s where resourcefulness comes into play with being able to leverage your connections to get sales expertise, research for online tutorials, and get to what you need. Whatever it Takes Mindset – Comes down to having a whatever it takes mindset. Before you get the job this may mean proactively offering to do some free projects for the company to get them comfortable with the value you can provide. Or while on the job, staying those extra hours or picking up additional responsibilities to get the job done. >>Hustlers – Essentially, hustlers

Independent: Startups look for problem solvers. People who approach challenges with “how can we make this happen” versus “there’s no way we can do this.”

Tolerance: Startups by nature are ambiguous organizations that are heavily resource constrained. There aren’t enough resources for any handholding so each and every person needs to be able to take a project and run with it. That means you might be given a project that you have never done before and maybe the company has never done before, but you have to add structure and figure it out. These could be “figure out our international expansion” – actually one of Susan’s first projects. Or, figure out how we can improve community moderation.

Going along these lines, being resourceful is a key trait of any successful startup team member. That may mean Googling something new to you, pulling your friends for connections or feedback, or coming up with creative solutions.

Resilience and passion. There are always ups and downs to startups – they look for people who can push through setbacks and bounce back stronger because of their passion for the team, mission, and product. In sales, for instance, you might get 100 closed doors before you land your first client. It’s the ability to be persistent that makes you stand out.

Confidence but no ego. This means being a true team player. In a startup, there are a lot of things that need to get done that aren’t glamorous or in your direct line of responsibilities. For example, as a Product Manager, it wasn’t in my job description, but I helped manage the Fresh Direct order on top of my other product responsibilities to keep up the team culture.

Basically it comes down to being a hustler – being able to do whatever it takes to make things happen.

We like to break down these non-technical roles into four main categories: Relationship-ers Organizers Analysts Creatives

Now that we’ve covered some of the expectations of a startup and what they’re looking for, how do you actually break in?

The first thing is to develop your target list of not only startups, but also anyone you know in the tech community who could potentially be a resource in your search. There are some great resources out there to help you develop this list. Made in NY is a great list to browse – it has 1000 startups that were founded in NY listed and highlights which are actively hiring AngelList is a great resource if you’re looking for early stage startups – will provide you links to the founders, and in-depth info on the product and investors of the company Twitter is helpful in discovering and following startups as they all have social media presences. It’ll also give you a good idea of which are active and have momentum. Also look to your own university alumni databases to find friendlies willing to help.

Once you have your list of startups and influencers, use LinkedIn to find connections to them and ask for 15-30 min of time to grab a coffee or chat on the phone to ask for some advice. Have a LOT of these conversations so you can not only get yourself as top of mind if they are hiring later, but also so you can gather a lot of data points to help guide your own search. Ask them about the startup culture, work load, and responsibilities of their job, what they did when they joined and what they’re doing now, and given your background where they would see you most fitting in. Start narrowing down your criteria from here on the exact stage and role you’re looking for so you can better focus your efforts. Also make sure to ask them for someone else they could intro you to.

Referrals in general are the #1 way people find jobs at startups – There often is no formal recruiting process, especially at early stage companies. And even at big startups, they have so many inbound resumes that they don’t even look at them. One of our clients has 1000 resumes in their inbox, and as a result goes strictly through referral.

Events are a great way to jumpstart or expand on your network. And the tech community in NY is especially strong.

Garysguide is a great resource for curated startup events to help you filter for ones worth attending. Set a goal for yourself that you’ll attend at least 1 event a week and set up a coffee chat with at least 1 person from that event. Just going to the event won’t help you alone. Walkabout NYC is an example of an annual event where many startups and larger tech companies in NY open up their offices to the public. You can go tour Foursquare, Etsy, Techstars, and more, which gives you a great taste of the vibe of a startup environment and also an opportunity to make a connection. Startup job fairs are also a great way to get exposed to a host of startups in the city and meet the hiring managers or recruiting leads. NYC Startup Job Fair just happened a couple weeks ago, but they’ll be doing another in the spring. Uncubed is coming up in November, so mark your calendars.

Get a taste of actually building something.

Workshops like Startup Weekend and LeanStartupMachine are a great way to get a taste of going from an idea to a prototype and validated customer learning all in the course of a weekend, and you don’t have to be a developer to participate.

This was something I sought out while in consulting as a way to get absorbed into the startup ecosystem while still balancing my current job. It also was a great way to work with a cross-functional team of devs, designers, marketers, and business people, which I had not previously been exposed to in consulting, and what I found to be essential in the 15 person team at MeetMoi. It was also a great tangible piece of evidence of my interest in startups when in an interview setting.

Set yourself apart by actually having real skills, or at the very least demonstrate your interest in learning.

Startups are looking for people who can add tangible value and deliver on real output from Day 1, or with limited direction. Interested in marketing? Take some classes from Skillshare or GA on digital marketing – set up your own google adwords campaign so you can learn the ropes and at least be familiar with the concepts. Take an intro web development course so you can build up some basic knowledge in html/css and have a basic understanding of what the developers are talking about.

This will help you set yourself apart and prove to the startup that you at the very least have taken the initiative to learn some of the relevant skills on your own.

And of course use Lynxsy has a resource to help you get your foot in the door.

We focus on matching junior talent with startups for non-technical roles (sales, marketing, customer service). All you have to do is sign up with a brief profile and we’ll send you curated jobs that match your preferences and background. There’s no charge for candidates. We have direct relationships with over 100 startups and we’ll act as your “in” to the company to fast-track your resume. We also provide a Trial Period for many of our roles to help you test out the company before making a longterm commitment.

We like to break down these non-technical roles into four main categories: Relationship-ers Organizers Analysts Creatives

Finally, once you are able to get an interview opportunity, here are our Top 5 tips on making an impression:

Test out the Product This means, Sign Up for their site and experience it – can’t tell you how many candidates fail to do this baseline requirement which most startups expect for someone interested in working at their company. Do Your Homework Look up PR so you can show your awareness of recent news like a new round Check out the Competition to help give you some thoughtful questions to ask Bring Something to the Table Again, it goes back to proving you can add value on Day 1. If they don’t give you an assignment themselves, Wow them with your own assignment. Have a new feature idea or a new type of email template they could send to users? Mock it up and bring it in to show. Your goal should be to WOW the interviewer above what was expected in the amount of value you could add and the initiative you have. Your own portfolio Show Passion You need to prove your passion for the company and role in the interview. There are many times that candidates fall short in the interview because they don’t exude enough enthusiasm. But it’s not just blind cheerleading for the company. It’s about showing your enthusiasm around the mission of what they’re doing, but also asking thoughtful questions around the challenges you expect them to face and which you could help solve. Outside of showing passion for the company, demonstrate your passion in something else as well. Play music on the side? Talk about that in the interview and show that for something you are passionate about you’ve pursued it to the Nth degree. Don’t wear a suit A huge part of the interview beyond requirements fit is culture fit with the team. Know that most startups are known for casual wear and t-shirts so if you show up in a suit, it’s going to be super awkward for both sides. A big part of the interview should be relating with the interviewer and making sure you get along, and also show your awareness of the environment you’re getting yourself into. We tend to recommend dressy casual to keep things safe.

WOW your interviewer Do your homework (that means sign up) Come with recommendations Ask thoughtful questions Demonstrate legit interest in startups Create a “portfolio” Own a sphere of influence – prove you can execute Show your passion for the company and role Know your story – why are you here?

Breaking Into Startups for the Non-Coder (Presented by Lynxsy)

1.
Breaking Into Startups
Hoodies, MacBooks, and What to Expect for the Non-Coder
Connie Wong
Co-Founder, Lynxsy
@cs_wong

8.
You
• Want to be a founder
one day
• Love to persuade
• Can break out of your
comfort zone
• Your friends call you
the shark
Roles
• Sales Associate
• Market Development
Representative
• Business
Development
Associate
Business Growers